WEST WINDSOR — After a first two weeks of hockey that have seen some ugly scorelines in the CVC, there finally was a good, old-fashioned barn-burner tonight at the Mercer County Park rink.

In a match-up of two undefeated teams, West Windsor Plainsboro South High School (3-0-1) and Princeton (3-0-1) battled for three periods, with momentum swinging back and forth and back again.

The Pirates’ Brian Tso picked the pocket of a Tigers defenseman at the blue line and drove to the net to score unassisted with just under three minutes to go in the game. The goal tied the score at 4-4, and that was how it ended in the conference’s first big showdown game of the season.

“It was a very good game tonight,” said South head coach Laurent Lassant. “I knew that Princeton was going to be a very solid team, and that they would be a good test, and they didn’t disappoint. I knew the shots would be in their favor; I was just hoping it would have been a little closer. They are a talented squad.”

“It was a good game,” said Princeton head coach Terence Miller. “We competed hard. I thought the first period we really jumped on them. We really had our legs moving there. The second period, we started to take some penalties and let the ice tilt back in their favor a little bit. But I just told our guys I was extremely happy with the third period. We came out down two goals, and tied it up after the first five or six minutes.”

Princeton’s Patrick McCormick had a hat trick on the night. His goal with just 1:03 left on the clock in the first period gave the Tigers something to show for their dominance of the period, in which they out-shot the Pirates 14-4. It was his two third-period goals, however, that brought Princeton back from down 3-1 to 3-3 in just over a minute, and when Spencer Reynolds scored three minutes later, the Tigers had a 4-3 lead.

“Going into that third period, we knew we could tie this thing up and maybe even win it,” McCormick said. “The third period, we knew if we outworked them and just played our game, we would come out on top. Even though we didn’t, I’m proud of the effort our guys put in during the third period.”

West Windsor-Plainsboro South got back into the match in the first five minutes of the second period. The Pirates were on the penalty kill and pinned in their zone when the Tigers took a penalty to make it 4-on-4 hockey for a minute. Just seconds after the penalty elapsed and the Pirates went on the power play, Jeremy Greener took a pass from Matthew Sayde and converted the chance to tie it at 1-1 and completely swing the momentum of the game.

It was Sayde that would turn the match on it’s head six minutes later. The Tigers once again were on the power play when Sayde jumped a pass at the blue line and skated all the way in on a breakaway, calmly wristing the puck into the top shelf to put South in the lead 2-1.

Just two minutes later, it was Sayde who would once again get his chance one-on-one with the keeper. The Pirates flipped the puck out of their defensive zone down the ice, and the puck just died before it got to the icing line. Sayde had skated hard to try to stop the icing and found himself on another breakaway, slotting home for his second goal in two and a half minutes, to give South a 3-1 lead right before the intermission.PRINCETON 4, WW-PS 4 (TIE)
Princeton (3-0-1) 1 0 3—4
WW-P South (3-0-1) 0 3 1—4
Goals — P: P. McCormick 3, Reynolds; W: Sayde 2, Greener, B. Tso. Assists — P: Andres, B. McCormick, Reynolds; W: Yasnov, Sayde. Shots — P: 40; W 14. Saves — P: Quinn 10; W: P. Tso 36.